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The Situational Demographics of Deadly Force – Abstract

James P. McElvain and Augustine J. Kposowa have an interesting new article, “Police Officer Characteristics and the Likelihood of Using Deadly Force,” in 35 Criminal Justice and Behavior, 505-521 (2008). Here’s the abstract.

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Past research on police shootings, when examining officer characteristics,has focused on the officer’s race, particularly when it is notthe same as the race of the person shot. Data from 186 officer-involvedshootings were used to examine whether race effects existedand, if so, would be eliminated or attenuated by controllingfor officer gender, education, age, and history of shooting.Male officers were more likely to shoot than female officers,and college-educated officers were less likely to be involvedin shootings than officers with no college education. Risk ofofficer-involved shooting was reduced as the officer aged. White,non-Hispanic officers were more likely to shoot than Hispanicofficers; however, there was no significant difference betweenHispanic and Black officers. Officers with a previous historyof shooting were more than 51% as likely to shoot during thefollow-up period as officers without a history of shootings.